


bear his print awhile

by TheTartWitch



Series: One-shots of AUs [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Crack, I Don't Even Know, Itachi gives Sasuke a baby, M/M, Sasuke POV, Spontaneous Baby, fox Kushina, fox Naruto, mention of Gaara and his tanuki shoulderpet, starts very seriously and then just fluffs, summons Kushina, summons Naruto
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-04
Updated: 2016-11-04
Packaged: 2018-08-28 23:11:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8466592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheTartWitch/pseuds/TheTartWitch
Summary: Sasuke needs something to tie him down.The Hokage's fox summons suggests a solution.(Also, at the end there's a baby. You've been warned.)
 
(Naruto knows a good thing that's been broken when he sees one.)(And foxes have always been better than snakes. Believe it.)





	

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from 'Soul Fox' by David Mason.  
> This is legit crack. Don't expect depth, it's just a whimsical fic ending with the sudden acquisition of a baby. Also fluff.

He used to love playing in the woods in the compound, chasing invisible things through the bushes and calling back to the birds when they sang. He doesn’t quite remember why he stopped, when he first glanced out the window into the trees and felt a spark go down his spine at the sight of the place. 

\--

He’s in his last year of Academy, watching Kiba and Akamaru roll in the packed sand of the Academy’s courtyard and wondering why it feels so nostalgic. He doesn’t let it show on his face, but he’s begun to ache somewhere deep in his chest for something like that: a bond, a link, a chain. Something, anything, to tie him down and make him feel human again. 

\--

The Hokage is a blond, scruffy man with sauce on his cheek. He blinks down at Sasuke and his request in bemused silence for a moment, sitting in his comfortable chair behind his practical desk. 

In the corner, a cushioned pet bed is stationed in the perfect spot to survey the entire room without needing to move. In it is a fox; Sasuke knows her name is Kushina, that she can grow to unimaginable sizes when she wants to, and that she fought with Hokage Namikaze when the war was going on. At the moment, she’s the size of a grown poodle, lounging in her throne. When she yawns, a fang slips out and glitters like a kunai. 

The spark slips down his spine again, a tingle of warning:  _ don’t stick your finger in the socket. Don’t covet what isn’t yours. _

_ Don’t be greedy.  _

The Hokage’s eyes are weighted when he looks back. He realizes he’s been staring, but surely that’s expected of a child? He doesn’t worry about it. 

The Hokage’s mouth opens to speak, but he’s interrupted.

“Minato,” says Kushina, and they turn to her. Her eyes are like thunderstorms, thoughtful and heavy and building a force to break the world. “He’s strong. The foxes will be pleased.”

The Hokage’s expression shakes. Sasuke can’t tell if he’s pleased or upset. Perhaps he’s both.

\--

He meets them later, privately again, on Training Field 9. Sasuke’s new team assignment will be passed out tomorrow. He’s not excited; he’s nothing. What it will be doesn’t matter to him. 

Kushina is larger this time, the size of a horse. The Hokage looks fragile astride her lashing tails and toothy grin, but when his eyes catch the sunlight they blaze. Sasuke doesn’t say anything when they touch down; the Hokage eyes him with equal wariness. The man may be a peacemonger, but that doesn’t make him stupid. He watches threats without hesitance, and Sasuke is almost flattered by the thought that  _ he  _ is one.

Kushina smirks at them both and performs some sort of complicated flipping movement with her torso that tosses the Hokage to the tamped-down dirt. The man splutters as Sasuke watches, waiting for the man’s esteemed grace to kick in. 

“Gah,” says the symbol of Konoha, spitting out a handful of leaves. “Blargh, gek.” 

Kushina snorts. She sits next to him, tails wagging and eyes glowing with mirth. He glares balefully. 

“‘Get on my back, Minato’,” he imitates a gruff tone. “‘It’ll be fun, Minato.’”

Kushina’s animal grin widens. Sasuke studies a tree and tries not to feel discouraged.

\--

Kushina coaches him on the popular ideas of summoning: types, sealing tactics, even how to ward some weaker summons away. He is a competent student, inhaling the knowledge she pushes towards him like a bird’s wings filter wind currents. 

But none of that is what he wants. 

“I want…” he pauses, trying to explain. Kushina doesn’t rush him; for all that she is chaos and mischief and explosions, there’s a quiet, waiting side to all of that too. For chaos to exist there must be an order to disturb, and for Sasuke to think something through there must be time for him to plot his words carefully. “I want something… heavy. Something meaningful. I don’t want to fade or be forgotten by my summons.”

Kushina studies him. 

“You want something to ground you so you don’t fly away,” she said. 

And then she showed him how to do that, too.

\--

He is alone in the circle with the summoning scroll. He is to add his name to it with blood, she explains, and then to say his name, so that a fox will hear it and answer his call. He nods, draws a kunai, and makes a shallow slice across one thigh. He writes carefully ( _ everyone who will ever summon a fox will see my name here first _ ) and notices the Hokage’s name at the very top:  _ Namikaze Minato _ . Sasuke’s name is the second. 

“Uchiha Sasuke,” he says, clearly and loudly and widely, for everyone to hear. Nothing changes for a moment, leaving the world dull and awful and closed off, but then there’s a shift. 

A poof of smoke ignites in front of him like a flash-bang, one of Kiba’s favorite fireworks, and a pale golden fox with big blue eyes sits and watches him. 

“Hello,” says Sasuke’s fox, shrewd and wild and everything Sasuke had hoped he would be, “I’m Naruto.”

\--

Naruto never leaves his side. They are as inseparable as Kiba and Akamaru but more, because Naruto can see Sasuke’s hidden heart and Sasuke Naruto’s concealed intelligence and mixture of cruelty/kindness and it is everything they have ever looked for in another. 

( _ Minato and Kushina never leave each other’s sides either. Maybe it’s a fox thing. _ )

\--

His genin team is made up of three useless factors: Hatake Kakashi, who wanders into Naruto’s eraser trap due to the omnipresent porn in one hand and claims to hate them all immediately ( _ though he stares at Naruto’s small fox body shaking with laughter on Sasuke’s shoulder and holds the boy’s returning gaze evenly _ ); Sai the artist, who could easily become a painter if he ever quit being a ninja ( _ he’d just need to master that unfortunate mouth _ ); and Haruno Sakura, an overbearing fangirl who flitted between jealousy, hatred, and squeals of joy when thinking of Naruto so close to her Sasuke ( _ the joy was mostly whenever the fox was small and yawning or large and napping _ ). 

Sasuke could already feel his eyelids twitching.

Naruto batted at his neck in comfort, tails swaying lazily as Sasuke hopped onto the school’s roof after leaping out the window.

\--

Their first real mission was… well, to be honest, Sasuke was going to reserve judgment. On one hand, they’d succeeded in their mission of getting that elderly, drunken bridgebuilder back to Wave Country, but on the other, everyone had seen a glimpse of Naruto’s true power because Haku ( _ now converted, along with Zabuza, to Konoha after their employer’s betrayal and subsequent tragic passing _ ) had gotten close enough to almost poke a few holes in Sasuke with his needles and mirrors. 

Naruto had been exceedingly displeased, to say the least. Sakura had stopped cooing over his every move, though, so that was good.

\--

The boy in the tree has a fat tanuki clinging to his shoulder. At the sight of Naruto, the small angry beast hisses violently and retreats to a place of safety on the boy’s other side. The boy stares at them both with wide, vibrant green eyes but doesn’t say a word.

\--

Sasuke and Kiba are paired in the duels. They fight seriously, showing off their abilities to the best of their physical skills and tactical advantages. The crowd goes wild whenever one of them manages to score a hit, and in the end, Sasuke triumphs.

Naruto and Akamaru spend the entire match rolling the dust being kicked up and hiding from each other playfully in the mock-forest at the edge of the arena. At the end, Kiba scolds Akamaru breathlessly while Sasuke coolly allows a fluffy little fox to clamber up his arm to his shoulder and collapse around his neck like a scarf. Several of the audience members swoon or cry out.

\--

“Come to me, Sasuke,” says Orochimaru, slithering tongue flicking between sharp canines. Sasuke watches him the way Minato-sensei watches Kushina’s claws when she’s bored. Naruto huffs.

**_As though I’d_ ** **ever** **_entrust you to a_ ** **snake** , he sniffs, turning up his nose. Sasuke grins, his own little smile bloodthirsty enough for the both of them. One of his arms comes up, and he smirks when Orochimaru tenses just a bit. Naruto leans into the petting with a preening sigh.  **_Ne, the chakra bombs you put on his back must be done charging by now, hmmm? Why don’t you show him why foxes will always be better than snakes?_ **

Naruto’s jealousy has always been cute, Sasuke thinks, even as his fingers twitch into the activation forms. 

Little bits of Orochimaru’s latest body litter the forest for weeks. 

\--

He’s twenty, and living by himself ( _ Naruto doesn’t count, has never counted. They are one being _ ) when Itachi invites himself over and gives him a present.

“What is this?” He says suspiciously. His brother is not above tricks, especially now that he has Naruto to collaborate with. 

“It’s a baby,” Itachi says, one eyebrow raised. “Has it been so long since anyone’s let your grumpy face near one that you’ve forgotten what they look like altogether?”

The baby is a curious thing, grabbing at Sasuke’s dangling hair and nose with delighted little giggles. He supposes it could be worse: it might look like a fat little tomato, but at least it isn’t sobbing loud enough the neighbors might hear.

Naruto wanders into the room and freezes, eyes fixed on the baby.

“I love babies,” he says into the sudden silence, “I want it.”

He turns big cerulean eyes on Sasuke, melting the reasons he was about to give about why people shouldn’t just  _ give  _ him babies like he knows what to do with them. 

“Fine,” he says, and gently puts the baby into the cradle of Naruto’s tails while he ushers Itachi out the door and goes to find something they can use as a carrier while they shop for essentials.

He’d worry about how quickly he folded if Naruto didn’t often do the same for him, and besides, he doesn’t  _ hate  _ babies. He’s just never had one before.

He’d learn for Naruto, though.

**Author's Note:**

> ...questions?  
>  *winces good-naturedly*


End file.
